Customer Reviews

Off the Wall

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This is the only Michael Jackson solo LP that I'm writing a review for since it best encapsulates my favorite genre of music: Pop/R&B. Instead of just talking about how good the music is (just read the rest of the reviews for that), I'll attempt to provide some insight on just what makes 'Off The Wall' so special. Read on:

First of all, MJ wrote three of the songs on this album; two of them are among his greatest, and that says a lot about the sheer talent emerging from the 'Gloved One' at that point in time. They are: "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough", "Working Day and Night", and "Get On The Floor".

Secondly, Rod Temperton wrote two of the other amazing tracks on this album; they are: "Rock With You" and the title track, "Off The Wall". Temperton also wrote the closing track, "Burn This Disco Out" ; but please allow me to give a little background info on this underappreciated songwriter/producer.

Rod Temperton was part of a band called the Heatwave in the late 1970s, and they're best known for the hits "Grooveline" and "Always and Forever". What's more, Rod Temperton also wrote "Thriller", "Baby Be Mine" and the ultimate Michael Jackson quiet storm ballad, "Lady In My Life". Folks, I'm sorry, but this cat Rod Temperton is BAD...and it's about time someone gave him credit where credit was due. Thank you Rod, for blessing this album with your R&B sensibility, and songwriting ability - you're awesome!

Thirdly, this was the first time Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson ever worked together on a full-length album - and at first Quincy didn't even want to do produce it! That's right, Q.J. had apprehensions about producing a "pop" record; but it worked. The pairing of then former child-star Michael Jackson with an accomplished composer like Quincy Jones was an odd one that proved to be the most amazing musical collaboration yet to take place: 1979's 'Off The Wall', 1982's 'Thriller', and 1987's 'Bad'.

Lastly, there's the music that really speaks for itself. Stevie Wonder's contribution, "I Can't Help It" is splendid, and for me it induces visions of a nighttime magic carpet ride through a large city under a full moon. I actually liked "Girlfriend" written by Paul McCartney; it's playful, and I think it could easily be covered by today's pop/R&B stars. The lone ballad on this album, "She's Out Of My Life" was decently covered by current R&B singer Ginuwine in 1999, but the original is, well...better. Minimal filler tracks - if any, on 'Off The Wall'.

Thanks for reading...

Knyte.

With all the headlines about plastic surgeries, melting faces, questionable parenting practices and voodoo contracts on entertainment moguls, it's easy to forget just how talented Michael Jackson was (is?)

I found this in my CD collection and popped it in. As a result, I remembered why I had a crush on Michael all thru my childhood and teenage years. Listening to tracks such as Off the Wall, Don't Stop Til You Get Enuf and Rock With You shows the true scope of a gifted performer who apparently got too caught up in his own publicity.

I've always considered Off the Wall a far superior work to Thriller and all subsequent Michael Jackson productions. The combination of Jackson, Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton provided the 80s with the best R&B. To those who only became aware of Jackson during his Thriller fame, I suggest you buy this CD as well as some Motown Jackson 5 compiliations. It will answer questions of why he became famous in the first place.

It's unbelievable,but before "Off The Wall," Donny Osmond was a bigger star than Michael.That all change in the late 70's,when one of the greatest pop albums came out. Everyone was shocked.This was the first time 4 songs made the top 10.Michael broke his own record with "Thriller" a couple years later."Don't Stop 'Til you get enough" is one of my favorites,along with "Off the Wall." Michael did most of the background singing himself,and wrote alot of the singles released.Everyone thought this would be the album Jackson would be remembered for the rest of his life.

Yes, this album is better than Thriller. This was music that saw Michael and Quincy Jones team up and when Michael was "black"(literally!). It's hard to believe that this was the first album ever to have 4 top 10 hits by a solo artist. Although it sold 9 million copies, Off the Wall has never got the respect it deserved because of Thriller. However, I feel that Off the Wall is a mandatory selection for any music lover just as Saturday Night Fever, Sgt Pepper's, Thriller, and Pet Sounds.

All the tracks are good--there's no filler here! However, these are the tracks that stand out in my mind:

1) Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough -- His 2nd #1 (after Ben) overall and the first #1 from the album. This is an unbelievable record--it's pure disco with Michael singing about forces (he's actually talking about spiritual things here). I just love the overall sound of this song. Definitely one of the best tracks.

2) Rock With You -- The other #1 from the album. This song is more of a ballad and it has such a smooth feel to it. If there was ever a perfect song, this is it. Another highlight of the album!

3) Working Day and Night -- Strictly an album track, this song has a very frenetic pace with a hook that you can't get out of your head.

5) Off the Wall -- the title track and a song that went to #10, it sorta foreshadows Thriller with its spooky texture.

6) Girlfriend -- a song written by Paul McCartney, it is a very fun song to listen to.

7) She's Out of My Life -- another song that went to #10, this song, IMHO, is Michael's greatest ballad ever. The only song that comes close is Man in the Mirror. It boggles my mind that this song didn't go to #1. If you don't get chills going down your spine when you listen to this song, then you ain't human!

9) It's the Falling in Love -- pretty much a duet with Patti Austin (one of Q's favorite singers along with James Ingram), it has a very funky, dance quality to it.

In summary, this is a must-have album. After 20 years, it still sounds great and fresh. It's not that I hate Thriller, it's just that I love Off the Wall better.

I was 8 years old when Michael and his brothers first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Like a lot of my contemporaries, I wanted to be like him. When it comes to performing, Michael Jackson is still the man .... hands down!

Off The Wall is an album that benchmarks Michael's transition from boy/teen/R&B/ idol to pop "godhood". All of the bubblegum "soul" that put Michael & his brothers on the map was notably absent. Like a lot of people his age (self included), Michael came of age in the disco era, but not necessarily the "Studio 54" brand of disco that everyone seems to be hearkening back to nowadays. The disco was a metaphor for the lives we were living back then. The dancefloor was the arena where we all acted out our life's dramas. It was perfectly fitting that Michael's rite of passage into musical adulthood, take place in his white-hot, disco dance tracks on this album. Michael's R&B sensibility was definitely infused in the sheer polyrhythmic funk of all of his dance tracks on this album. The percussion and horn arrangement are the most attention-grabbing element of his songs in this album, apart from the sheer sonic energy of his voice. Michael and Quincy Jones went and got the best (and the funkiest) studio players on the planet. For this album not to have been multi-platinum is unthinkable.

Michael's musical energy has always been on the level of near nuclear meltdown even in his Jackson 5 days, but this is the album where he reaches critical mass! As a matter of opinion, I think every young artist since has had to make an "Off-The-Wall" type release wherein they make a "coming-of-age-statement" (ala Janet Jackson .... "Control"). Rather than go into analysis of each and every track (they're all superb), I'll simply say that musically, Michael lost his musical "cherry" with this release. As an artist, he and his audience would never be the same afterward. Every release since, has been an effort to outdo or re-create Thriller. However, Off The Wall is the album that should really be the template for Michael's work. It is Michael's artistry in it's purest adult form.

Released the same week he turned 21, "Off The Wall" is still the perfect picture of Michael Jackson as a mature, supremely gifted, free and wildly expressive artist. Sure, his follow-up in 1982 would sell a trillion copies and dominate EVERY awards show, radio station, magazine cover and generally saturate pop culture for years to come, but this masterwork was (and still is) his finest moment. All the promise of his early years fronting his brothers in the Jackson 5 is fulfilled in this sterling collection of tracks. The most amazing thing about this seminal release is how well it has aged. For an album that came out at the height of the disco craze, it doesn't sound at all dated or embarrassing as much music from that era does. The two biggest factors are this: Michael had finally grown into a real SINGER, from the sexy falsetto he unveiled on "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" the confident, unhurried phrasing on "Rock With You" and "Working Day & Night" to his tear-drenched "She's Out Of My Life" and jazzy, serene vocals and scatting(!) on the albums' centerpiece "I Can't Help It", Michael has simply never sounded better. He sings with such joy and abandon, that on songs like "Get On The Floor" you can feel the excitement that must have been bouncing off the walls during the recording sessions! The second biggest factor is Quincy Jones' flawless production. The backing tracks he provided Michael with are some of the sharpest, clearest and well balanced ever heard on record. The CD reissue further emphasizes this point, making Louis Johnson's bass, Paulhino DeCosta's percussion, the late Jeff Porcaro's drums and Greg Phillinganes' keyboards sound as bright and crisp as the day they were recorded! In many ways, it's impossible to overestimate the impact this LP had on popular music; it sold over 10 million copies at a time when the record industry was in a sales slump, it crossed over into clubs but avoided being lost in a sea of repetitive, mindless disco releases ( the ambitious title track with it's shifting tempo and intricate band interplay assured that) and it single-handedly assured Michael Jackson's place as an ADULT ARTIST not content to simply relive the glories of his childhood and be relegated to a slot on some oldies revue. THIS was Michael the man, the performer and a soon-to-be legend claiming his spot as true music royalty.

"Off the Wall" was my very first album, way back in 1979 (I think) and I still have it. To this day I enjoy listening, singing, and dancing to this music. The album has the lively dance tunes "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough", "Working Day and Night" and the funky title song "Off the Wall". However, my favorite songs are "Rock With You" (Rod Temperton) and "I Can't Help It" (Stevie Wonder). With all due respect to the Pop King, I love the song-writing of both of these geniuses. Anyway, if you haven't heard this album, buy it - it's an r&b and pop legend.

Although I usually reply with an emphatic "NO" when someone asks me if I'm a Michael Jackson fan, I've always liked "Off The Wall". The album came out when I was five years old and I can still remember the excitement engendered by tracks like "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" and "Rock With You". Even after "Thriller" became the most nauseatingly overplayed album ever and all subsequent efforts reduced his claims to "The King Of Pop" as hopelessly shallow, "Off

The Wall" remained the one album I always pointed to whenever somebody slagged him off. I only just recently acquired the album on CD, and there's something still fresh and invigorating about every single track here; there's not a weak one in the bunch, and the split between the "dance" side and the "ballad" side is maintained. This kind of late 70s/early 80s brand of commercial music usually doesn't appeal to me (disco was still king back then), but like The Jacksons' album "Destiny" which preceded it, it's Jackson's intensely high spirits and the loving production touches (courtesy this time of Quincy Jones) which raise this album far above the crowd: the wall-of-sound percussion on "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough", the driving choruses of "Working Day And Night", and the ghostly vocals on the title track bespeak greatness at every turn. The album is unashamedly commercial, but like other exuberant pop moments such as "With The Beatles" and "The Slider", the quality of the music is such that Jackson makes it work to his artistic advantage. Filled with more depth, soul and grace than all of his later albums combined, "Off The Wall" *is* Michael Jackson, pop superstar.

folks trip on the most un-important things of an artist. what's most important aside from talent is to deliever the goods. this album is a soul classic and an opus. from a dynamic Singer,song-writer,producer,arranger and multi-media force. 3 decades deep and still matters. Michael Jackson has no peers. this album brought two powerful minds together and created history. aside from Stevie(who co-wrote the jam I can't help it) what other child star has been all that as an adult? Michael that's who. Don't stop till you get enough is still funky and has made percussion that tossed ricky martin ain't heard yet. rock with you still smooth. working day&night thumps even better live and rocks on this album. the title cut a strong pre-curser to thriller. she's out of my life real depth. the grand duet with Patti Austin It's the falling in love.most artist will never make an album of this magnitude. soul music 20 years later and it's still all that. not only rod temperton, Quincy Jones, Louis Johnson, Greg phillighanis but Michael of course put the magic on it. this is a must have.

Michael Jackson's 1979 solo debut Off The Wall stands today as Michael Jackson at his rawest and most sincere.

Long before the scandals, the nose jobs, and the court appearances, Michael Jackson was the youngest member of the beloved Jackson 5, later known as the Jacksons. In the late 70's, Michael was no longer a little boy, he was a young man who, in a few years, became the biggest selling solo artist and the most exciting live act since The Beatles. He teamed up with producer Quincy Jones, and the result was a collaboration that spawned 3 classic albums within 8 years: Off The Wall, the record breaking Thriller, and Bad.

Off The Wall captures Jackson right before the madness kicked in, and it is quite a moment to cherish. The 10-track album features some of Michael's greatest classics: the US number 1 hits Don't Stop Til You Get Enough, and the groovy Rock With You, the sweet ballad She's Out Of My Life (a song so sincere that MJ actually cries at the end), the upbeat Working Day And Night, the Paul McCartney penned Girlfriend, and, one of my personal favorites, the charming title track Off The Wall.

Many people regard Thriller, the 1982 follow up, as Michael's greatest achievement. Thriller was so successful that it overshadowed the Grammy winning debut. Whatever the case may be, Off The Wall is definitely Michael's prized contribution to music, an album so sweet and so modest, Michael ought to take lessons from it for his future release.

Recommended

A